You know when you order sushi—I’m thinking of my personal favorite, spicy tuna crispy rice—and there’s a sauce drizzled across the roll that tastes really good, but there’s never quite as much of it as you wish there was? That’s what Trader Joe’s set out to replicate with their new Spicy Dynamite Sauce. Made with vegan mayo, pickled peppers, sesame oil, garlic, and horseradish, it looks like a creamy sriracha and I suppose I expected it to taste like a cross between yum yum sauce and the horseradish-y dipping sauce that comes with onion petals at a lot of chain restaurants. What does Trader Joe’s Dynamite Sauce actually taste like? Well, let’s discuss.
Pros: I have to be honest, I don’t have a lot of good things to say about this new Trader Joe’s sauce. I appreciate that it’s made with vegan mayo—more creamy sauces should be so they’re more accessible to more people—but I also don’t think vegans should rush out and buy this just because it’s dairy free. You can do better, promise.
Cons: The main con is that this sauce tastes almost exclusively like sesame oil. It’s not very spicy, and all of the other ingredients, despite their boldness, are totally drowned out by a toasty, oily flavor. I made my colleague Ariana Losch take a taste and she totally agreed. We both specifically like toasted sesame oil, but this sauce promised way too much to get away with being so dang one-note.
Howdy! I’m Gwynedd, Sporked’s managing editor. I live in Los Angeles and have access to the best tacos the U.S. has to offer—but I’m a sucker for a crunchy Old El Paso taco night every now and then. I’ve been at Sporked since 2022 and I’m still searching frozen mozzarella sticks that can hold a candle to restaurant sticks.
Why you should trust me: I’ve been a journalist for 20 years (yikes), a consumer of food for 40-plus years, and I’m truly hard pressed to think of foods I don’t like (or that I can’t tolerate at the very least). Oh and one time I cooked my way through Guy Fieri’s cookbook and wrote about the journey through Flavortown.
What I buy every week: Trader Joe’s Original Savory Thins. Fat free plain yogurt (usually Fage or Nancy’s). Honeycrisp apples. Sweet cream coffee creamer for my at-home Americanos. A frozen cauliflower crust pizza and some jarred mushrooms to top it with. Old El Paso Stand ‘N Stuff taco shells and Gardein Ground Be’f, even though I think “be’f” is a nightmarish contraction.
Favorite ranking: Stouffer’s frozen dinners. I don’t own a microwave (I get my cancers the old fashioned way!), so I love taste testing things that I don’t really buy to eat at home.
Least favorite ranking: Soy sauce. Don’t get me wrong, I love soy sauce—but consuming that much sodium in one sitting is probably illegal in some countries. Our frozen enchilada taste test was a close second; the smell of microwaved corn tortillas still haunts me.
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!
Gwynedd Stuart
Matt Crowley
Jordan Myrick
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!